No. LV.]

NOTES.

[JULY, 1855.

SONG IN DISPRAISE OF WOMEN.

From a Manuscript, time of King Henry VII.
THES Wemen all,
Both great and* small,
They wander to and fro;
Nowe here, now there,
They wot not where,
But J will not say so!

They rune, they range,
Theyr myndes do change,
They mak theyr frends yr foe;
At louers trewe,
Gidy days and newe,
But J will not say so!
Wythin their brest,
Theyr loue doth rest,

Who lyst to pue shall know;
For all ther bost,

All day almost,

But J will not say so!

Now whot, now colde
Ther ys no holde,

But as the wynd doth blowe;
When all is done,
Change like the moon,
But J will not say so!

They loue, they leyue,
They will deceiue,

As dyse that meyn do throwe;
Who vsyth them myche,
Shall neuer be ryche,
But J will not say so!

Gyue thys, gyue that,
All thyngs they lacke,
And all you may bestowe;
Ones ought of syghte,
Farewell, good nyght,
But J will not say so!

Thus one and other,

Takyth after the mother,

As cockes by kynd do crowe;
My song ys endyd,

The best maye be amended,
But J will not say so!

The Harl. MS. 7578, has a version of this ballad, which Ritson has printed, see Ancient Songs, 1790, p. 134.

*The word 'and' is indicated by an imperfectly formed "and per se," shewing the then use of that character.

VOL. V.

ROYAL THEATRICALS AT HAMPTON COURT.

INDUCED by the beauty and cheapness of the late Mr. John Kemble Chapman's History of Theatrical Entertainments at Court, more particularly those performed before Her Majesty at Windsor Castle, in 1848-9, I became a purchaser, and found in it much to approve and commend. Considerable research is embodied in its well printed pages, and the numerous engravings with which it is embellished are entitled to the highest praise : it is altogether a pleasingly interesting volume.

During the reigns of Elizabeth, James the First, and Charles the First, there were Court representations of Theatrical performances at Hampton Court; but at p. 31, it is stated "William the Third had no taste for the drama, nor have we any record of dramatic entertainments at Court until four plays were performed at St. James's before Queen Anne in 1704. That George the First, who spoke no English, and was past the learning of it, early in 1718, ordered the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace to be fitted up as a theatre, where plays were to have been acted twice a week during the summer season, by way of propitiating public opinion in the encouragement of the drama; but the month of September was more than half passed before the arrangements were completed, and seven plays were all that were represented before the Court returned to London."

Colley Cibber, who in his Apology states many interesting particulars of these performances, notices that subsequently but one play was given at Hampton Court by King George the Second, for the entertainment of the Duke of Lorraine; and from that period till the present reign, it is certain no theatrical representations have graced the festivities of the Regal Court of England.

These observations are preludial to the purport of an unpublished letter by the late WILLIAM CAPON, formerly a scene painter of no mean notoriety at Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres. Written in 1821, it appears to have reference to some Dutch print of a theatrical performance in William the Third's reign, most probably in Holland, but supposed to have been a graphic illustration in his time of the Royal Theatre at Hampton Court. It commences:

"In the summer of 1783, I was for the first time at Hampton Court Palace. In the great Hall built by Cardinal Wolsey, there was then remaining a Theatre, with some scenery, an orchestra, etc., which was called King William the Third's Theatre. The whole was very dirty and shabby in appearance, and to the best of my recollection, might have been about eighteen or twenty feet wide from the first wing on the one side, to

H

the opposite wing on the other, and about the same in depth from the front of the stage to the last scene at the back. There were, I think, four pairs of wings, some scenes on rollers, and hanging borders, but much torn, and very dirty.

The painted decorations which were exposed to the eye, were to the best of my recollection very like to those shewn in this print; they were at least of a similar style of architecture.

"The stage was raised about four or five feet above the floor of the hall. In this print, the Lion shewn on the breast of the guardsman on the left hand, are the arms of Holland; on the breast of the one, on the right, are the arms of Zealand; but whether these are intended to show some of King William's Dutch bodyguard, I know not. We may suppose some dramatie representation is proceeding by the appearance of the persons on the stage, but there is a vastness of size of the whole when compared with the human figures, which does not correspond with the size of the theatre which I remember in the hall of Hampton Court Palace; and reckoning the human figures as shewn in the print, at six feet, the wings (if wings they are intended to represent,) are about eighteen feet high from the feet of the first men on each side, to the top of the cornice, from the crown moulding, of which the arched borders vault; again, the disposition of each side is so different to the usual arrangement of a theatre, that I am at a loss to conclude what the artist has really intended to shew. If each side is one continued plane standing parallel to the other, as far as to the distant range of figures, which evidently are purposely in shadow in order to throw a strong light on the next distant plane, which is at a right angle with the sides, this disposition is quite contrary to all usuality of practice in stage arrangement, and is not a picture so dissected as is convenient to the exits and entrances of the performers, and required by the business of the stage, for here could be no entrance but from behind, otherwise than at the doors in the front on each side; nor was the disposition of the stage at Hampton Court in the manner here shewn,-the wings there in the usual manner stood parallel to the ground line, and to each other, to facilitate the entrances and exits of the performers from behind the scenes.

"In this very extraordinary and scarce print, there have been three plates employed to produce its present appearance. That which shews the stage to the foot of the figures standing on it, is of superior merit to the other representing a Proscenium vaulting over with a semi-elliptical arch; an orchestra, and pit and side boxes. By the inscription at the bottom, it was published at Amsterdam. The publisher's name appears, but not those of the artists, or date.

"The verses in Low Dutch at the foot of the print, are evidently from the marks, worked from a third plate.

"Colley Cibber in his Apology particularly describes the effects produced by an alteration that was made in Vanbrugh's theatre in the Haymarket, subsequently the Italian Opera House, shortly after it had been built

in 1706,-the throwing an arch from wall to wall, over the front of the stage.

"There seems in this view taken altogether some such similarity as might induce a belief this print may possibly represent that theatre with the alterations mentioned by Cibber; and the shape of the orchestra is really very like to the brick foundations discovered by me, after the destruction of that theatre in June, 1789, when and during the following winter I made most accurate measurements and plans of the whole ruins, and perspective views, particularly from the north end, of its appearance after the fire.* I then saw distinctly former foundations of walls, which had been by the pit flooring wholly concealed from observation. "W. CAPON."

STERNE'S LE FEVRE.

THE following Memorandum from a Manuscript by the late Mr. Halpin of Portarlington, Queen's County, Ireland; in the possession of Dr. Hanlon, of that town, may possibly interest the readers of Current Notes.

The first master of the French school, at Portarlington, was Mr. Le Fevre, who kept boarders, a most worthy character, a friend and correspondent of Dr. Henry Maude, bishop of Meath, the original founder and promoter of the Protestant Charter Schools. From Le Fevre's school others were established, particularly for infant children, so that the town of Portarlington, for more than half a century has been celebrated for its schools, there being at present [1811] six reputable seminaries for the instruction of the youth of both sexes; three for males, and three for females, which conjointly contain three hundred children.

Le Fevre the protomaster's son bore a commission in the army, and was the identical Le Fevre of whom Sterne in his Tristram Shandy has drawn so good a picture.

THE ASSUANLEE CUP.

COLLECTORS of rarities regard with particular attention the Cups or vessels which have been in the olden day owned by distinguished individuals, or have derived a special interest from their association with some memorable event. In this respect there are few can vie with the silver Cup now in the possession of Mrs. Alexander Gordon, only surviving child of the late Sir Ernest Gordon of Park and Cobairdy, and the history of its acquirement by Sir Ernest's father, is equally bordering on romance, with the manner in which it is said to have been originally obtained.

Mr. Jervise in his recently published History and Traditions of the Land of the Lindsays, has entered fully into the history of the transactions which in the reign of James the Second led to the rebellion of the adherents of Douglas and Crawford, caused by the ruthless act of that monarch stabbing Douglas to the heart, while under an invitation to supper in the Castle of Stirling, on the evening of Feb. 13, 1452; the particulars are thus related :

Douglas went thither on the faith of a safe-conduct under the Great Seal. After supper, His Majesty led Douglas to a side apartment, and remonstrating with him on his lawless intrigue, urged him to break the covenant which he then held with Crawford and Ross, with this demand Douglas, though unarmed and in the midst of foes, determinedly refused to comply, and the King then exclaiming with an oath-If you will not break this league, I shall !-struck him to the heart with a dagger. Sir Patrick Gray and others, who were secreted near the fatal chamber, then rushed on the Earl and finished this cold blooded act of royalty by throwing the carcase out at the window into the palace garden, which aperture has since been called "the Douglas window." This murder was the signal for open rebellion on the part of Earl Douglas's adherents his brothers instigated by indignation and horror, proclaimed the King a liar and traitor at the gates of his palace, dragged ignominiously throngh the streets of Stirling at the tail of a horse, the Earl's safe-conduct, and afterwards

set the town on fire.

The battle of Brechin that followed, was fought at the Haercairn, about two miles north-east of the city, on May 18, 1452, when the Earl's party, from circumstances detailed by the historian, were discomfited, and one of the royalists, a son of Donald, the Thane of Cawdor, becoming intermingled with the routed rebels, and unable to extricate himself, went onward with them to Finhaven Castle, where, while quaffing "the blood red wine," the Earl and his followers were aroused by an alarm of the advance of the king's forces under Huntley, and in the confusion consequent on preparing for defence, Calder had opportunity to carry off the silver drinking cup, which on his returning, he presented to his chief as evidence of his having bearded "the Tiger" in his den, and as a reward received an augmentation to his patrimony of Assuanlee, or favours of a like kind.

There are doubts as to Calder's braggart fame; personally he appears to have previously evinced so little

courage, that he had been branded and stigmatised as a coward, and according to another account it is intimated, that he had stolen in disguise to the Earl's camp as a spy, yet all agree, that

A silver cup he from the table bore. However obtained, the cup remained in the Assuanlee family till about the middle of the last century, when, as related by Mr. Jervise, the following incident occurred.

Some years after the 'fortyfive,' a party of gentlemen, Jacobites, and all more or less under the ban of Government, ventured to hold a meeting at a small hostelry in Morayshire, between Elgin and Forres. In the course of their sederunt, one of their number, Gordon of Cobairdy, rose up to mend the fire, and in doing so saw something at the bottom of the peat-bunker, or box for holding the peats, which seemed to glitter. He fished the object out, and found that it was a large and handsome old cup, but flattened. On enquiry it turned out, this was the celebrated Cup of Assuanlee, that had been pledged in security for a debt to the inn-keeper, by the Laird, a drinking spendthrift. Cobairdy, a man of considerable taste, and a collector of rarities, never lost sight of the cup, till opportunity offered when he got it into his possession, though he and his family had to pay more than one sum of money which had been raised by Assuanlee of the security of his little-cared-for heirloom. Cobairdy had it perfectly restored to shape, and on the top or cover had the figure placed, the crest of his family, Gordon of Cobairdy. It has been erroneously stated the arms of the Earl of Crawford were upon it, but there are no arms.-On the lid, in characters apparently of the seventeenth century, is the following inscription

TITUBANTEM FIRMAVIT HUNTLEIUS,

BREICHEN, MAII 20 (or 28) 1453. Exclusive of the figure, the Gordon crest, the Cup Scottish pint and two gills. measures in height about fifteen inches, and holds a

by Lord Lindsay. The woodcut is from a drawing kindly communicated

INGLEDEW.-Can any reader of Current Notes give an account of the family or birth-place of Thomas Ingeldew, a clerk of the diocese of York, who in 1461 founded two Fellowships in Magdalen College, Oxford? Newcastle-upon-Tyne. ANGELTHEON.

BOCCACCIO AND CHAUCER.

JOHN HORNE TOOKE's reprint copy of the Giunta edition of Il Decameron, printed at Florence in 1527, 4to., has many interesting manuscript philological notes, among which the following may not be uninteresting to the readers of Current Notes.

At the end of the Prohemio-piacevoli, sollazzevolivole, put at the end, answers to our ful, and has sometimes, probably been corrupted to ble.

Giornata III. Don Felice. The Miller's Tale in Chaucer seems in part taken from this story. Tyrwhitt observes- "I have not been able to discover whence the story of the Miller's Tale is taken; so that for the present I must give Chaucer credit for it as his own invention, though, in general, he appears to have built his Tales both serious and comic upon stories which he found ready made. The great difference is, that in his serious pieces, he often follows his author with the servility of a mere translator, and in consequence his narrative is jejune and constrained; whereas, in the comic, he is generally satisfied with borrowing a slight hint of his subject, which he varies, enlarges, and embellishes at pleasure, and gives the whole, the air and colour of an original."

Giornata VII. Lidia moglie di Nicostrato ama Pirro. The latter part of this story has been adopted by Chaucer, as the latter portion of his Merchant's Tale.

Giornata X. Madonna Dianora, a Casa Messere Ansaldo (chez Mons. Ansaldo) a common phrase in Italian, thus leaving out the sign of relation between Ansaldo and his house, I have not observed this particular omission in any other language.

J. H.

FRANKLIN'S NATIONALITY OF CHARACTER. Eighty years since the Ministry of that day in deference to the King's wishes, declared America in rebellion, and the sanguinary battle of Bunker's Hill followed in pursuance of orders to which the people of England were directly opposed. Strahan, the King's Printer, was then in Parliament, and was previously on terms of close intimacy with Dr. Franklin, but the latter closed that connection by the following characteristic and manly avowal.

Philadelphia, July 5, 1775.

Mr. Strahan,-You are a member of Parliament, and of that Majority which has doomed my Country to Destruction. You have begun to burn our Towns, and murder our People. Look upon your hands!—They are stained with the blood of your Relations !-You and I were long Friends-You are now my Enemy, and

I am yours, B. FRANKLIN. The autograph original was sold at Messrs. Puttick and Simpson's on the 20th inst., for thirty-nine shillings.

No man in the crowd of life is remarked, till he has found some sort of pedestal on which he can stand and be seen.-Jules Janin.

SPES ET FORTUNA VALETE!

As some interest appears to attach to the Latin couplet which forms the subject of several communications in the last number of Current Notes, I transcribe some lines from Wolters' edition of Petronius, Amst., 1700, containing a somewhat similar couplet, the sentiment of which is perhaps more truthful in its application, than that which Le Sage and Lord Brougham have given to the former. A Farewell to Hope and Fortune is vainly said even by those who were wont to sport

In troubled waters, but now sleep in port. Ashton-under-Lyne, June 27.

J. G. R.

C. Petronii Hilari Pisaurensis Epigramma.
Diis manibus Petronii Antigenidis.

Tu, pede qui stricto vadis persenta, Viator,
Siste, rogo, titulumque meum ne spreveris oro.
Bis quinos annos, mensesque duos, duo soles
In superis feci, tenere nutritus, amatus:
Dogmata Pythagoræ sensi, studiumque sophorum
Et libros legi-legi pia carmina Homeri,
Sive quot Euclides abaco præscripta tulisset.
Delicias habui pariter lususque procaces.
Hæc Hilarus mihi contulerat pater ipse patronus
Si non infelix contraria fata habuissem.
Nunc vero infernas sedes Acherontis ad undis,
Tetraque Tartarei per sidera tendo profundi.
Effugi tumidam vitam; spes, forma, valete;
Nil mibi vobiscum est; alios deludite quæso :
Hæc domus æterna est: hic sum situs, hic ero semper.

THE HAVEN OF ETERNITY.

THE Brechin correspondent, who, in Current Notes, p. 42, supplied the Greek epitaph, copied from a monument at Basle, to the memory of a clergyman, 1564, observes, "it reminds us as much of the Apostle Paul, as of the Greek epigrammatist;" it rather reminds me of the impostor Mahomet; for who, but one of his followers, would knowingly have written such a verse as this?

Οὐρανίοισι θεοῖς μοῦνος ἔνεστιν ἔρως.

The former line is not without fault. The blessed who rest in the Lord, cannot be correctly said to take a long farewell of faith, for with them faith is realized. The original verse should have remained unaltered; and the pentameter, instead of inspiring a sensual idea, should have conveyed a spiritual one.

Ελπὶς καὶ σὺ Τύχη μέγα χαίρετε· τὸν λιμέν' εὗρον.
Ἐν μακάρων νήσοις νῦν ἀνάπαυσιν ἔχω.
Thus both lines are consistent and connected, and
free from the objectionable idea—

By Hope beguiled, by wavering Fortune too,
At last I bid a long farewell to you.

I've gained the Port. Securely now I rest
In everlasting regions with the blessed.
Hawkshead, July 9.

D. B. H.